Friday, April 3, 2009

Movie Review - Fast and Furious 4 (2009)



New Model. Original Parts.

The tag line could not be more true for this movie! As big a hit the 1st one was, the 2nd and 3rd parts of this franchise failed to create equally big ripples due to the absence of Vin Diesel!

The poor performance of duex and trois meant that Vin is back for the 4th one! After all, the original is the original

<-- Diesel power Baby! (the BDS does not stand for BAD ASS.. lol)

Fast and Furious 4 completely ignores part 2 and 3. The story picks up from where part 1 left off... (FBI mole Paul Walker, allows Vin to run away). Hiding from the cops, Vin is running his operations in Dominican Republic (Again, an apt place coz Vin's name in the movie is "Dominic".. lolz)

The plot of this movie has gangsters, drugs, cops, chicks and the Cars! The original team of Paul Walker (FBI agent), Diesel (Dominic Torreto), Jordana Brewster (Vin's sister and Paul's GF), Michelle Roderiguez (Vin's GF) are back for this rocking movie! Vin still drives Muscle cars and Walker sticks to driving Imports! The chicks are good eye-candy and they even get behind the wheel once in a while. The best of them is Michelle, coz shes the only one who gets dirty under the hood and also handles herself quite well everywhere else - on top of the car and even on the backside of a truck!

While the plot is quite interesting, it is the car chases that kinda get a bit repetitive! (Yep, I said it!) The best thing about the 1st movie was the exotic car racing that was shown on the screen. When it comes down to that, part 1 certainly comes out on tops among ALL 4 movies. The car sequences in 4 would have worked has the movie come out at the time part-2 was released. The main car chase sequence in part 4 feels very "game-like" and it had a Tokyo-drift-like feel to it (remember the race on the mountain?) This is where the story comes in handy and prevents the movie from being termed as a dud!

The plot, combined with the chemistry, that's carried forward from the original, between Walker, Vin and Jordana is what held my interest in the movie.
<--- (Lock it load it and pop it! Thats done right... FnF style!)
For me, the initial adrenaline rush was over after the first 2 car race sequences and the rest of the sequences had a "game like" feel to them - bad lighting, too much dust n dirt being kicked up (to give them the benefit, the sequence was pictured in a desert), but still... It didn't do it for me.

Perhaps its because between part 1 and part 4, I have watched other movies that have come out with better car sequences! (Death Proof - top 10 best car chases ever! Chicks doing the chasing further adds to the appeal.)... Or perhaps I was tired from a long night and the darkness of the theater was too tempting for my body to resist!
All being said, It was a good movie. Certainly worth a watch, but not worth canceling dinner plans with your date. Thankfully, the friend I went with preferred this movie over a mundane dinner... just one reason why we get along just fine... lol
Rating -
2.5/5 for plain movie goers
3/5 for people who like movies that give them an adrenaline rush!
3.5/5 for fans of the franchise



***********WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD***********
I loved the 1st sequence the most! Vin and Michelle are robbing an oil truck-train. The sequence was picturised in daylight, so the viewer can see the scene a little more clearly and its easy to follow the fast action on screen.
The street race was good and exciting, but the GPS voice was VERY annoying! I get enough of that in real life... movies are suppose to allow me to escape from that!
The tunnel sequence was the most bizarre of the 3 main race sequences. It gave the mountain race sequence of Tokyo Drift a run for its money for being fake! I felt it was included purely for the sake of a movie based video game that might come out in future.
Loved the exchange between Gisele (Gal Gadot) and Vin when she tries to hit on him and he shuns her. The lines might be cheesy, but appear to be tailor made for Vin's delivery... And he delivers them just right.
Vin's car totally rocked! Paul's car sucked towards the end of the movie.... Black and White...? Seriously?? Did the designers run outta ideas or was it the budget? I bet on the latter with the economy tanking .. lol

20 comments:

Smita said...

Hi! A hindi movie review please :-) or maybe a book review :-)

Shayari said...

Knowledge limited to the Fast n furious track from the third movie, Tokyo Drift in the series:-)

Bhargavi said...

havent seen the movies..!!

eye-in-sty-in said...

Smita,
lol... Is that in retaliation to the comment I left on Ramya's blog?

Hi Shayari,
Then u shd watching this one... In fact, plan a date... Its a good way to impress a guy.. (if u know what I mean.. lolz)

Hi B,
Ditto 4 u too... start watching it... they're fun to watch...

Smita said...

Well your guess is as good as mine ;-)

eye-in-sty-in said...

How can yours be a guess...? Shouldn't you "know"... lolz!

Smita said...

You never know!

eye-in-sty-in said...

lol.. then u much be smokin crack!

caffeine head said...

the classic cars they use in Fast and Furious are what make this movie worth watching

eye-in-sty-in said...

yep.. that too!

the BDS intake looks pretty cool... I was not happy with the import that was shown in the end.

The wheelstand was pretty cool in the 1st race...

Welcome to the blog n thanks for commenting..!

Ava said...

You know I know nothing about cars except they have four wheels and run on petrol. Though they say about Chandigarh that a fancy car turns more male heads than a fancy gal, I am clearly not in that league.

Anyhow I liked F&F, a good movie is a good movie. Tokyo Drift kind of grew on me after a few watches, though I didnt like the lead actress, her face was too broad.

I was planning on watching this, but its not playing yet here :( Maybe next week or something.

eye-in-sty-in said...

I'd laugh at your knowledge abt cars, but then i'm not an expert at everything either...

lol @ the chandigharh comment... Tokyo drift was ok for me... I found it a little tooo cute for my taste... this one is far better than tokyo drift. U should enjoy the action n the guys in it...

Shayari said...

Does that..?:D

eye-in-sty-in said...

Hi Shayari,
Take it from me... lol

Vee said...

Definitely catching it, Vin is back Yay!!!

@Ava, that holds good anywhere (I feel so)..

couchpapaya said...

meh not for me. btw, have u watched pitch black and chronicles of ridick???? vin diesel was born to play the character of riddick, he is sooo BAD ASS, it's yummy :D i cannot stand him in any other role after that one!!!

eye-in-sty-in said...

Hi Vee,
Vin is back - nothing like the original cast! lol @ ur reply to Ava.

Hi CP,
Just when I thought you were perfect, you throw a wrench i the works! How can you not like fast cars, muscular guys and hot chicks?.. lol If the story interests you more, there is a forbidden romance thing happening in the movie too (well, sorta). I did watch Riddick and Vin was pretty cool in it! Tailor made role for someone like him. He's not a bad actor though... I thought he was cool in The Pacifier too. Totally different type of roles, but he pulled it off. Still, his role in Riddick is something else!

eye-in-sty-in said...

Perhaps you have a set image of him as I have a set image of Audrey Hepburn! For us, these actors are at their zenith in the respective roles and we dont want to let go of that image!...?

Valerine said...

Hey I watched dis movie too ...i luved Vin Diesel.....He is hotttttt.......And is a great action flick.....

eye-in-sty-in said...

Hi Val,
I take it that you are into big burly guys then... lol